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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Need a Resuscitator?

Chris Bosh has shrunken from a center to a power forward to a small forward in just a matter of weeks, and at this rate, will soon be able to look Muggsy Bogues in the kneecaps.
Erik Spoelstra doesn't have the guts, or the resume, to tell the Big Three what to do, or how to do it.

LeBron James left his better talents (as in teammates) in Cleveland.

Dwyane Wade prefers Robin to LeBron's Batman and it's hurting his swag.

Pat Riley is now busy rummaging through his closet, searching for an Armani that'll look good on the bench.

Leave anything out? Have we covered all or most of the issues preventing the Heat, to paraphrase the LeBron commercial, from being who you want them to be?

Everything we just mentioned as a degree of merit to it here in mid-November, a time for panic in Miami, . Bosh is looking softer than your grandmother's touch, averaging six rebounds and appearing timid and afraid. You can't imagine Spoelstra ripping into his team, let alone his best players.

LeBron doesn't have an Anderson Varejao or Mo Williams on the Heat. Wade is terribly inconsistent as he plays the "my turn, your turn" game with LeBron. (We're just kidding about Riley mulling a return, but check back next month if Miami's staring at .500 in the standings.)

Everybody's overreacting, to a degree. The season's too early to draw any concrete conclusions about Miami. But there's one very legitimate concern that won't flare up until spring, when the Miami season matters most, and it is this:

Will the grind of doing-it-all eventually wear down LeBron and Wade, just in time for the playoffs?

It's not just the minutes, which LeBron alluded to a few days ago (and as you might expect, the public took his comments as a swipe toward Spoelstra). It's the multi-tasking. LeBron is playing nearly 38 minutes a night, 35 for Wade, which is normal for them, but heightened once you factor in the stress of playing almost every position on the floor and defending the other team's best players. Because there's such a massive gap between the talent level of LeBron/Wade and everyone else, Miami is leaning heavily on two players to do it all. Big minutes, plus big responsibility, equals lots of tread wear.
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